To say that I’m playing Missile Command for this review has me shocked and delighted. Just a few days ago I was playing the original Missile Command as part of my review process for the Atari 2600+, and now quite unexpectedly I have a brand new Missile Command to play on the Intellivision Amico?!? It’s a day I genuinely never thought would come.
Most of us will know the story by now. The Intellivision Amico was the new modern retro themed console that was filled with promise, but hit stumbling blocks and didn’t seem like it would ever come out. The last couple of years have been a trying time for those excited for the Amico to say the least. Plans to see the console release in spite of the troubles were announced, but a glimmer of light came in the announcement that a few games would release on other platforms, and that a new service called Amico Home would launch to make sure players had a way to play some of the games whilst waiting for the physical console.
Well, Amico Home is now here, and players can finally start playing Amico games! Amico Home is in Beta testing, so there are a few issues that I’m sure will be worked out over time, but it’s great to finally be able to play some games. Today I’m reviewing Missile Command and it’s awesome to finally get my hands on this reimagined classic.
The game has you control three guns that are spaced out at the bottom of the screen, and you aim a reticle to shoot counter fire at wave after wave of missiles that threaten to hit cities that run across the screen between your guns. Your mission is to last out the onslaught of missiles and shoot them out the air before they can hit the cities below.
This task gets increasingly challenging as the game progresses and you’ll find that the enemy uses smart missiles that dodge around your counter fire, and there are planes that shoot multiple missiles that seem to split off in three directions at you at once.
Fortunately, you do have a few tricks up your sleeve to help you progress along the way. The reticle you use to aim is loaded with information which is actually very helpful and innovative. It shows you how much ammo each gun has left and also shows that you have three shots of homing missiles yourself that can take out a mass on enemy fire with one shot. It also shows you that you have a shield that will protect all your guns and cities for a limited time. That all this information is linked to the reticle itself is a very helpful way of showing a heads up display.
There are also several power ups that you’ll see floating across the level that can be shot ti be activated. This includes ginormous bombs that can take out half the screen’s worth of enemy missiles, and power ups that improve your general fire. The best power ups are the ones that slow down or stop time and freeze the enemy missiles in their tracks. This makes it very easy to shoot the sitting targets.
Strategy wise, you’ll want to keep the balance between shooting missiles as they first appear on screen and waiting until missiles cross paths to get multiple with one shot.
Graphically the game is good and serviceable, but it won’t blow your socks off. It’s a very updated version of the classic Missile Command game, but it’s still retains the look and feel of the original. So don’t expect this to completely break new ground or change camera perspective. It’s not how Missile Command works. You have to remember that Missile Command is an Atari franchise and so it’s cool to see that they did a deal with Intellivision for this Amico exclusive take on the franchise.
There has also been Atari’s own Missile Command Recharged games in recent years that have seen releases on modern consoles, steam and even the Atari VCS. Whilst the recharged games have a neon glow in their graphical presentation the Amico game is something that has a more expected updated for a modern console look.
It would have been nice if there was more variety to the backgrounds or variety to the stages but it all works well enough, so there’s not many complaints from me.
What I found I struggled with at times was the controls. Keep in mind that this review is right after Amico Home has launched and they say it’s in Beta testing, so we can revisit it when the game is fully released and see if there’s any notable changes. This said, the game is available now and for those who paid for it, or who are able to download the game because they have a boxed copy, they have paid for a full game and can expect it to work as a full game should.
For me I had mostly positive results, but there a few things to note. The way Amico Home works is a little fiddly. You literally need to have two screens to play the games and that usually means you need two devices. I’m fortunate in that I have an android phone so could get this straight away as at the time of writing the iOS version of Amico Home is not available.
The issue is that you do need to have two devices to run the game. One device acts as the console and the other works as the controller. Most of my devices are iPads and iPhones, but as well as my android phone that I use for testing apps that I develop on the side I also have a couple of Amazon Fire tablets. These run on Android and will a little work you can install the google play store on them to download Amico Home.
I set this all up on my android phone and I did hit the issue that it allowed me to download Astrosmash on both my phone and tablet just fine, but with Missile Command it wanted me to pay for it a second time to have the game on my fire. This meant that for this review I ended up using the larger fire tablet as the controller and the phone as the console screen. Not ideal, but not the end of the world either.
You have three control styles to choose from. The standard one was ok, but I found best results from setting it up to be played like the touchscreen was a mousepad. I genuinely found the trackball option to be unplayable. You can tweak the sensitivity of the controls and on the trackball one I found the display was a bit messed up on the options.
As I reached levels 28-30 I found that I was having trouble because the controls would jump about a bit and not follow where I was wanting to aim and this was a bit frustrating, so it’s my hope that this is ironed out with updates as this goes into full release. In the coming days I’ll endeavour to test this with more different devices as I’m sure the results will vary based on what android devices you use for both the console and the controller aspects of the set up.
In terms of completing the game and replay value, it’s Missile Command so you’re just trying to stay alive as long as possible and build up as much score as you can. If you just want to get through as many stages as possible you can choose to restart from every five stages up to level 30. This is like choosing to start a game like Tetris from a later point. It means you don’t have to do all the early stages over and over again but also limits your ability to score extra when it’s easy.
You can also tweak things so the game is easier or more challenging and change how long each stage lasts. They can go from 20 second long stages up to a minute which will allow you to score loads more, but you’ll also have to survive longer too.
I may have to go back and replay the new Missile Command games on the VCS to see which I prefer of the two, but having played the original 2600 game just a couple of days ago, I can say this was a lot of fun. It’s easy enough to get into and has enough challenge to make you want just one more go on harder difficulty settings. It’s probably not a game you’ll play constantly for weeks, but it is a fun game that will be fun to return to, to aim for your best score. It has that pick up and play vibe which I know is what a lot of games designed for the Amico we’re going for.
Conclusion
If you’ve been patiently waiting for the Amico for a long time, I’m sure you’ll be pleased to finally be able to play this and the other games that are or will soon be available on the new Amico Home service. I’ll also have a review of Astrosmash and my early review of Amico Home overall up in the coming days, so do check them out. This game as it is isn’t quite perfect with the controller options as I’ve been able to test, but I have had a good time with Missile Command so far.
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